International Healthy Aging Network
The International Healthy Aging Network (iHAN) is part of the IARU ALH initiative. Researchers of iHAN collaborate on the study of molecular and cognitive biomarkers of healthy aging and age-related diseases, including Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, using in vivo methods of neuroimaging, particularly positron emission tomography (PET).
Research Focus
Research at iHAN is based upon three fundamental hypotheses, each of which relates to the substantial variation in overall energy consumption in the brain:
- That partial uncoupling of mitochondrial function and the resulting differences in individual energy production result in significant inter-individual differences in RONS (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species), damage and repair processes and that these differences contribute directly to variations in aging.
- That there is a direct relationship between inter-individual differences in brain energy utilization, brain morphology and/or activity.
- That there is a direct relationship between energy consumption in the brain and the aging process that can be established by aligning population-based observation of aging processes with measures associated with brain energy consumption.
iHAN Committee
The iHAN organization committee formally met for the first time in 2009 to initiate collaboration between researchers in Denmark, Singapore and Australia, which expanded to include researchers from other universities. The Network meets 4 times a year, often in groups of the individual nodes.
Researchers of iHAN include members from:
- University of California, Berkeley, US
- Yale University, US
- Johns Hopkins University, US
- University of Queensland, Australia
- Universiteit van Stellenbosch, South Africa
- McGill University, Canada
- University of British Columbia, Canada
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- University of Oslo, Norway
In 2015, the researchers of iHAN created three affiliated nodes, including:
- Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, St. Kitts, West Indies
- Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran
- Uganda National Research Health Organization, UNRHO, Uganda
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and Tabriz University of Medical Sciences are affiliated with the University of Copenhagen and UNRHO is affiliated with the University of Oslo.
